Biology 440/442 - Microbiology (Abraham)

How to Recognize Peer-Reviewed Journals

Peer-reviewed (or refereed) journals contain articles that are written by experts. These articles are reviewed by a panel of experts who scrutinize articles to make sure they meet professional research standards before they are accepted for publication. In most cases the reviewers do not know who the author of the article is, so that the article succeeds or fails on its own merit, not the reputation of the expert.

Scholarly, Peer-reviewed, Refereed Journals

Many of the following traits often indicate that an article is peer-reviewed:

• News or research from a professional field
• Published by a professional organization or society
• Articles usually long – charts, diagrams, notes, works cited
• A lot of citations: these may appear in-text, and/or as footnotes, endnotes, works cited, reference list, bibliography
• Author(s) identified
• Reviewed or approved by an outside board of scholars in the field

Types of Research Articles

• Original Research - Data and ideas that come directly from the research
• Review Articles - Compilation or synthesis of various ideas and data from original research
• Summary Articles - Synopsis of research

Original Research Basic Format

• Abstract
• Introduction/Background
• Methods (Material and Methods)
• Results
• Discussion/Conclusions
• References